GUTA to gov’t: Deal ruthlessly will foreigners who break ECOWAS protocols

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has charged the government of Ghana to take a cue from the Nigerian government and strictly implement laws against foreign nationals who breach  ECOWAS protocols.

This comes after four Ghanaians were deported last week by the government of Nigerian for falsifying Nigerian identities.

Some members of GUTA in recent past have raised concerns about the continuous breach of the protocols by foreign nationals, especially in the retail sector.

In an interview with Citi News, President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng also urged ECOWAS to ensure compliance on free movement laws.

“The protocol has its core front and limits which if you go beyond, the sovereign laws are applied just as Nigerian did. We are commending Nigeria for having that insight. We believe that by this our government will follow suit and do what is right so that, there will be sanity in the trading and ECOWAS community.”

“In Ghana, we have made the ECOWAS protocol supersede that of sovereign immigration laws. So what we are saying is that, by what Nigerian has done, it means that we should all follow suit and so same without any bias form the ECOWAS commission as it has always been done”, he added.

The deportees are Florence Donkor, Simon Gyan, Yeboah Collins and Alhaji Isa.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Reorganization has thus advised Ghanaians resident in Nigeria to abide by the laws of the country to avert such occurrences.